Ah, the promise of HDMI 2.0 — , professionals and technologists in the media and entertainment industry — myself included — have been eagerly awaiting the day we could actually use it (and reduce our dependence on SDI-based displays). I’m happy to say that for Archimedia’s customers, that day has finally come.
HDMI 2.0 outputs now come standard in our Atlas 4K/UHD and Atlas
Extreme appliances. Atlas has become an integral part of many media workflows around the world and is fast becoming the industry standard for critical viewing of encoded A/V content on any screen in any format. Now anyone who uses Atlas 4K/UHD, from any facet of the media and entertainment business, can take advantage of the improved picture quality that HDMI 2.0 delivers, especially for 4K cinema and UHD formats.
Gone are the days of using SDI-to-HDMI converters, which are not only an additional expense and potential point of failure, but also don’t support 4K 60p content as Atlas 4K/UHD does. Now that HDMI 2.0 is included in Atlas 4K/UHD and Atlas Extreme, there is no need for conversion. Instead you can view up to 4K 60p and UHD 60p content on HDMI 2.0-capable 4K projectors and UHDTVs directly using HDMI 2.0 inputs. Whether you’re in broadcasting, filmmaking, post, quality control, or archiving, you now have an alternative to SDI-based displays when working with Archimedia’s 4K/UHD reference appliances.
As a companion to the HDMI 2.0 hardware upgrade, we’re offering a free software upgrade that adds even more power to Atlas 4K/UHD and Atlas Extreme. For example, a new playlist feature lets you queue up any number of media files — including video, audio, captions, and subtitles — in any mix of different formats, and Atlas will play them sequentially. This feature is especially useful in theaters and screening rooms where HDMI 2.0 4K projectors and UHDTVs are now a viable, high-quality alternative to costly 4K/UHD SDI projectors.
We’re now building HDMI 2.0 into every Archimedia 4K/UHD and Extreme appliance at no extra cost. You can order Atlas 4K/UHD and Atlas Extreme with HDMI 2.0 now and see them in action at NAB in our booth, SL11616.
In fact, we think that Atlas 4K/UHD might be the only professional media player supporting HDMI 2.0 at NAB this year. That’s because Archimedia’s development cycle is quite short compared to most broadcast equipment vendors. We can incorporate new technologies pretty quickly — and our customers reap the benefit.